ACIT Alternate Ending
by fangirlwriter101
Summary: An alternate ending to A Crack In Time... What if had not been Alister to push the switch back? What if he had been too late? What if another certain Lombax had taken his place instead? *Warning for character death*


_Prepare for sadness! ...I'm so sorry._

 _Kinda had this idea for a while and I've been looking around and was kind of surprised not to have found anything like this done before (if there has been please let me know cause id love to see!). So I figured I'd finally go ahead and write it._

 _Once again, I apologize in advance._

* * *

At last the final blow had been laid. Alister collapsed to the ground with a grunt. Ratchet was still standing, gasping tiredly for breath. His ears twitched, however, as he heard the control switch leave its compartment.

There!

Ratchet raced forward to grasp at the handle. Everything was too loud and bright – glass was cracking, blue was flashing everywhere, the wind was roaring. Squinting his eyes shut and his ears flat against his skull, Ratchet tugged and pulled at the switch with all his might.

"NO!" He heard Alister roar. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Ratchet grunted, ignoring the General. "Come on!" He groaned, pulling even harder.

His knee gave way…

The whole switch snapped off…

 _NO!_

Ratchet felt like he could barely comprehend the situation. A sudden blue light burst from the broken switch panel, breaking through the roof of the Orvus chamber, seemingly blinding all of his senses.

It was broken.

The switch to the stability of the whole universe was broken.

Ratchet felt sick. He could not only feel, but see the room waving around him as the space time continuum wore thinner and thinner. The universe was going to collapse on itself at any given minute now…

"It's not working! Why isn't it working?!"

Ratchet turned and finally snapped at the Elder. "BECAUSE IT'S NOT A TIME MACHINE, ALISTER! The Clock isn't meant to alter time! Only keep it!"

" _Thirty seconds until total system failure."_

The room around them wavered even more. Alister looked around in utter despair and horror, finally realising the severity of what he had done. Ratchet frantically looked around, trying to find Clank – the robot had run off to the control panel to try and prevent the inevitable destruction of the clock while the Lombaxes fought.

He spotted his pal quickly, trying to not be blown away by the ferocious wind as he tried to make his way over to the young Lombax. Ratchet's heart broke and prepared to make his way over to the little robot. If the universe was about to be destroyed, he was going to spend what little time he had left with his best friend.

This was not fair. They only just found each other after two long, excruciating years. Two years of sleepless nights, wondering where Clank could be. Two years of searching ever corner of every galaxy. Two years of wondering why they had to be separated. Two years of being alone.

And Ratchet had been the one to bring all the trouble and threat to the Clock. It was his fault the Universe was in danger. With the state Alister had been in, he never should have brought him along to the Clock.

What wouldn't he give to fix his mistake…

…Fix.

Ratchet's ears perked up.

That was it.

Without hesitation, he raced at lightning speed towards the broken switch and pulled out his wrench. He had no choice… If he didn't…

The Universe… Everyone and everything he ever cared about… Clank…

It would all be gone.

He slammed his wrench into the panel; this time pushing with all his might.

"RATCHET!"

Over the roaring of the wind, he heard Clank yell out desperately. He twisted his head around, still pushing as hard as he could. Clank was now running harder, having realised what the young Lombax was about to do – his green eyes wider than ever and expressing horror.

Ratchet smirked. Who ever said robots had no emotion?

Not his pal. Not his incredible pal.

"No! WAIT!"

Now Alister had snapped himself out of his guilt-ridden trance, seeing Ratchet pushing at the switch. He leaped up from his knelt position and raced forward, desperate to reach the boy and take his place. It was the only way. He would get there first…

Ratchet only had eyes for Clank.

The screeching and whistling around the room was deafening. The light was too bright.

Ratchet felt the panel shift.

He smiled at the robot.

"Take care of yourself, pal."

There was a bigger burst of light…

Clank ran faster, screaming out his best friend's name again…

Alister's fingers barely brushed the boy's fur…

Ratchet finally switched off the control panel and the room exploded.

The elder Lombax and robot were thrown back in the blast… both knocked out cold.

* * *

… _.._

… _.._

… _.._

 _Rebooting._

 _Calibrating systems._

 _8%...17%...29%...36%...50%...79%...85%...99%...100%_

 _Systems online and functioning._

 _Estimating 46% overall damage._

 _Activating visual scanning._

Clank blinked his eyes open with a long whine. His systems were nowhere near fully functional and operational yet to be able to move around for very long, but he felt he had to get up as soon as he could. He was still checking his hard drive for all of his memories and catch himself up on what just happened.

He scanned the room… Orvus Chamber. That's right. His father's Chamber. The Great Clock. Located in the exact centre of the universe… give or take fifty feet.

The room was smoking. The floor hot and cracking with electricity. It was quite surreal really. Looking around, Clank spotted a figure spread out on the ground – white…furred. Lombax. That's right. General Alister Azimuth. The one who had caused the damage. The one who had turned the switch back. The one Ratchet had found.

…

…Ratchet.

Clank felt his systems freeze.

 _Ratchet._

Clank's wires nearly twisted themselves over at the speed he turned his head at, trying to locate the centre of the room where the switch was.

He spotted his friend easily. Golden fur and reddish-brown stripes, wearing dark blue armour that was smoking… lying face down over the stairs. Clank felt colder than ever. His sensors indicated only one heartbeat in the chamber…

Shakily, Clank hoisted himself up onto his feet, his optics glued to the limp form of his best friend. No… Not again. He could not have failed a second time…

He remembered how he had been racing so fast to reach the young Lombax, everything in his systems screeching with alarms. For one selfish moment, Clank did not care if the universe was going to be destroyed… not if it meant a universe without Ratchet.

Now Clank felt slower than ever as he made his way over.

He prayed his systems were lying; telling him that the only heartbeat in the room was getting further away the closer he came to Ratchet.

"Ratchet?"

The Lombax did not reply, remaining limp as ever.

Clank fell to his knees again, reaching for his friend's hand.

 _No…_

Six minutes would have surely passed by now. And the Clock was far too sensitive now to attempt to turn back time again.

There were no second chances again.

It had been Ratchet's fate that day to die…

Clank was not too sure if he wished he were an organic right now. The pain in his chest was too much. His sister board was practically burning with the organic need to scream and cry… and he could not do either. He cursed his father as he shut his eyes tightly, clenching Ratchet's cold hand more firmly in his two tiny hands. Why did he have to have a soul? Why did he have to be locked in a robotic body? It was too much pain to bear…

Ratchet…

He had known Ratchet since the day he had been born. He had not known a day of his life without the adventurous, young, rowdy and inventive Lombax. He had been shut off those two years. He had not felt the agonising separation Ratchet had gone through… and now he would suffer for the whole of his life.

 _Why why why WHY WHY._

 _System error. Can not compute._

"NO!"

Clank had the wind knocked out of his as he was harshly shoved away, the hand in his grasp being ripped away. _No! Ratchet!_

Clank sat up, about to race back, but halted.

The elder had woken up.

The General was nearly hyperventilating, holding Ratchet in his arms, desperately stroking the boy's head in attempts to rouse him. Ratchet's head only flopped back limply, his ears slack, his eyes peacefully closed, his mouth slightly gaping open.

The hand Clank had been holding was slack too, hanging down to the floor, attached to an equally limp arm.

"No! No! No!" Alister muttered, stroking the boy's fur more harshly. "I… I didn't-I didn't mean to! No!"

Clank slowly approached the Lombaxes, unsure of what to say… Let alone if he could even bring himself to start talking.

"Oh gods, what have I done?!" Alister choked, shaking the boy once more. Ratchet still did not wake. Only one heartbeat remained in the room. "I'm sorry! Kaden, I'm so sorry! I'm sorry, Kaden! Please!"

Clank felt like he should have been angry as he watched the elder Lombax bring Ratchet in closer, now resting the boy's head in the crook of his neck and shoulder protectively, sobbing and still screaming apologies that could not penetrate through to the afterlife.

He did this.

He pulled the switch.

Ratchet felt he had been left with no choice.

Ratchet was dead because of his actions.

Ratchet was dead.

The finality of it finally hit Clank and he collapsed once again. Ratchet was dead. His oldest friend was dead and gone.

He reached out for the limp hand again and held it tight and close, never wanting to let go.

Clank's head knelt down.

System failure...

For the first time in Clank's life… a single drop of oil leaked from the corner of his glass eye as his systems could no longer withstand the unbearable and painful turmoil inside himself…

Ratchet was gone.

* * *

 _...there's going to be a few more chapters of pain._

 _I'm sorry XD_

 _I'll follow up with another happy family one-shot later on to make up for it!_

 _See you next time! Please leave a review!_


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